The wheel alignment on your vehicle can play a significant role in how your vehicle handles and rides. If you think alignment is off, you need to have the car checked by an alignment shop.
Signs Of Alignment Issues
One of the first signs that there is a problem with the alignment on your vehicle is often tire wear. The tires on the car may be pointed in or out too far, or the tops of the tires may lean in or out as the alignment changes.
Once this starts to happen, the tire wear can become erratic, and you may notice have damage to one side of the tire. In extreme cases, the rubber can wear so severely that the steel belts inside the tire begin to show through the tire and can be dangerous because the tire's structure becomes unstable, allowing the tire to fail while driving the car.
Correcting the wheel alignment is the only way to fix the wear issues, but you will need to take the vehicle into an alignment shop so they can measure the current alignment and compare it to the factory-specified settings. Once the tech knows where the alignment is at on the vehicle, they can adjust the suspension system and the steering components to bring everything back in line.
Damaged Parts
The problem with the alignment can often be traced back to worn ball joints, tie rods, or struts in the vehicle. As the parts begin to wear out, they can become loose and allow some play to develop in them that causes the alignment to change.
If the parts are worn in your car or truck, the technician working on the alignment will need to replace them to ensure the tech can properly align the vehicle. It would be best if you also replaced heavily worn tires because once the alignment is reset, the wear on the tires will change again, and they can affect the handling.
Aligning The Vehicle
Once the parts are replaced, and the car is on the alignment rack, the technician will use a computerized measuring system that uses targets and lasers to read the position of each wheel. The tech will adjust the suspension and steering parts until each wheel falls into the specs from the manufacturer.
The front end is aligned first, and then the rear tires are aligned to the front. The track of the car needs to be right so that the rear tires follow directly behind the fronts to ensure the car goes down the road correctly.
Once completed, you should notice the car driving straighter and handling corners better than it did before you took it into the shop. Often the steering will be tighter, and any tendency to wander should be gone.
Share15 December 2021
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